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Winners of ITU Telecom Young Innovators’ Competition debate with industry, government leaders

Young innovators enjoyed a day in the spotlight with a full agenda of activities at Youth Innovation Day at ITU Telecom World 2013 in Bangkok.
The winners of the ITU Telecom World Young Innovators’ Competition – the culmination of an annual search for young people using ICTs to find real-life solutions to real-world problems –took part in an Accelerator Programme, which included practical workshops in entrepreneurial skills; the chance to pitch ideas to an influential audience; and unparalleled networking opportunities with international event delegates from across the ICT sector.
Concluding the day, the Youth and Leaders’ Debate brought together creative young technopreneurs from around the world with high-level representatives of the industry and government to debate global developmental challenges.
ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun I. Touré along with the Director of ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau, Mr Brahima Sanou and senior representatives from the public and private sectors joined the debate, including Minister of Innovation and Public Administration of Albania Ms Milena Harito, Mr Roy King of Microsoft Lync, and special guests from Berlin Startup Academy, Mobile Monday Bangkok, as well as young Thai entrepreneurs who won the Mobile Solutions for Development in Asia Award for 2012.
Dr Touré presented World Intellectual Property Organization awards to Victoria Alonsoperez for Chipsafer, which detects diseases in livestock at an early enough stage to prevent mass infection; and Ivan Klimek for Excalibur, which turns a mobile phone into a universal authentication token, removing the need for passwords. Both projects have patents pending.
Dr Touré congratulated the new generation of techno entrepreneurs on their accomplishments, noting: “These young people are not just embracing the change of a digital world; they are the change. They are the digital world.”